Traditional heart and lung surgery is highly invasive. The chest is cracked widely open for exposure of surgical sites. High quality repair is achieved, but nevertheless considerable procedural related health risks and major discomfort are encountered by about 40% of the patients after open-thoracic surgery. Recently, minimal invasive surgery has gained interest, because it reduces all over operative stress due to less physical trauma and patients are increasingly requiring to be left with fewer scars. However, small incision access cardiothoracic surgery is difficult because the space between the ribs is limiting instrument passage and foremost hypothetical because the breathing lung obstructs free access to e.g. the heart. Alternative approaches in order to expose the heart minimal invasively are one-side lung ventilation or high pressure gas insufflation. The latter method however leads to crunching of the lungs. A more recent approach of minimal invasive surgery is by routing through an inflatable device that in its expanded state exerts forces on one or more organs and tissue to provide access to the site. Such a device is also known as a space maker or spacemaking device.
EP 1 744 678 discloses a device and method as referred to here above in the “General field of the invention” section. This device comprises multiple elongated expansion members which constitute a spatial structure, the elongate members being interconnected at their ends by nodes. The plane between the elongate members is provided with a flexible web to enhance the formation of an open surgical site.
DE 100 40 774 discloses a cylindrical balloon like inflatable device durably attached to a stylet for precisely navigating and positioning of the device in the body. The device has a continuous wall which may be divided into separate chambers, the chambers being in fluid connection. This way an even inflation of the device can be obtained.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,562,603 discloses an inflatable device which is constituted as a closed ball-like object of which the walls are made of a relatively inelastic and tough film of plastic. Any object piercing the wall is sealed immediately around its circumference to keep the expanded form intact.